This is what a real insurance emergency looks like, Florida | Editorial [Orlando Sentinel]

Right before Christmas, Gov. Ron DeSantis called the Legislature into special session because he said Florida's property insurance market was too fragile to survive even a few months, without another $1 billion in bailout money and a stack of new barriers for Floridians who believe their claims were unfairly denied.

Now we are left to wonder: Did DeSantis and legislative leaders know, when they dropped the massive "emergency" bill on lawmakers and the public less than 72 hours before they were scheduled to begin the session, how cruelly insurers were treating customers whose homes were heavily damaged or destroyed by Hurricane Ian?

It's hard to believe they didn't. Under Florida law, the 90-day deadline to pay claims from Ian was fast approaching; that cutoff was Dec. 30. Yet data posted this week by the state Office of Insurance Regulation shows that close to 20% of 700,000 claims are still open, and in more than 60,000 of those open cases Floridians haven't received any payment yet from their insurers.

That's not even close to the most disturbing revelation, though. According to those same figures, more than 25% of the completed claims -- 180,000 --- were closed out without any payment from their insurance companies. Not a dime.

It gets worse

In a blockbuster investigation published last week, the Washington Post may have cracked at least part of the code.The Post spoke with five independent insurance adjusters, hired by insurance companies to deal with the crush of Ian claims. Each and every one of them reported the same thing: Their professional appraisals of damages was altered --- always downward, in some cases as much as 90%. Photos documenting ravaged homes were removed from reports. Descriptions of damages were changed. Jordan Lee, an adjuster who inspected dozens of homes for Heritage Property & Casualty Insurance Co., said that when he looked back at the final version of his reports, 100% had been altered.

The Post spoke with adjusters who were working with three insurers, none of whom would talk to reporters. There's no proof that other insurers were engaging the same tactics to avoid paying claims. But there's also no getting around the fact that more than one-third of claims filed after Hurricane Ian are seriously overdue, or were denied any payment at all.

Yet lawmakers thought insurance companies needed more leeway to deny claims -- and put them at risk of having to pay their own insurer's legal bills if they took them to court and lost.

This time, fix it

This is unconscionable. And unlike the hastily called session in December, it is a true emergency. Even before Ian hit, Floridians were paying the highest insurance rates in the nation, under some of the most stringent terms including massive deductibles, coverage limits and restrictions on their legal representation. Yet after Ian, one in every four property owners found that their insurance didn't come through when they needed it the most.

The Legislature wrapped up the second week of session Friday. If legislators can pass a bad insurance bill in just four days, surely the remaining seven weeks of the regular session offer plenty of time to right the imbalance they've created. They can start by giving consumers back some of the protections they have lost -- including sufficient time to file claims, more rational deductibles and much stronger advocacy on their behalf by the Office of Insurance Regulation.

More important, however, is a top-to-bottom examination of what's gone so wrong with Florida's insurance market -- one that takes place in public, with hearings around the state and as much open debate and testimony as possible. Florida's leaders should take the time and effort, in particular, to listen to the people who came home after Ian's floodwaters receded, to the wreckage left of the homes where they raised their children or planned their retirement only to find that their most precious asset was worth just pennies on the dollar to their insurance company despite the premiums they paid faithfully for years.

The system didn't become so malformed in just the past few years, and fixing it will take time and a fair amount of fortitude. But it's no less than Floridians deserve.

The Orlando Sentinel Editorial Board consists of Opinion Editor Krys Fluker, Editor-in-Chief Julie Anderson and Viewpoints Editor Jay Reddick. Contact us at insight@orlandosentinel.com

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